Don't Mess with my Chocolate

You will not believe how badly I reacted to the chocolate my husband made me buy. You see, I was buying a particular brand for a certain recipe. It's something I've planned for for some time. I don't usually spend at home but I promised my daughter I'd make some for her and her dad (and of course for myself) this weekend.

I set aside money for it, I asked my husband to drive me to the grocery which sells that particular brand. When we got to the grocery, my husband started telling me to buy a different brand. That brand was on sale but ultimately buying it would still cost more than buying the brand I wanted. I told him no because it might taste different but despite my constant refusal...he kept badgering me until I obliged.

When I got home, I made the "dish" and it tasted different. I was so annoyed it was unbelievable.  I know I was being petty but every single time I tasted the product it got me more and more riled up. I wanted to buy it because I've tried it and I liked it. I was looking forward to it and now I'm so freaking disappointed.

I guess i can forgive a lot of things...but please don't mess with my chocolates. teehee

Positive Spin on a Relationship Funk

We are in a relationship funk. At least I think we are in one. We are not as sweet and loving to each other as we once were. It really doesn't make sense because in general my husband and I see eye-to-eye when it comes to 95% of big issues. We share the same faith, we have similar parenting styles, we don't have trust issues. So we should be so blissfully into each other.

I guess sometimes work gets in the way...or life. Doesn't life sometimes just get in the way?

I spent one night reflecting on our relationship and wondering what we can change. I zoned in on the way we communicate with each other. I realized that our automatic response is to contradict what the other person is saying first. If he says something my response is "No, but....". And he does the same. This is such an automatic thing for us that we don't even know we're doing it. I do know how I feel when he does that to me. I feel competitive and I feel my ego getting bruised. My goddamn EGO.

I have a big ego. I'm trying to whittle it down to a workable size but it's pretty hard. I've been praying to God because my Ego is a source of selfishness and pride and those two things don't lead to good things. In this case, my ego makes me competitive and argumentative. When I'm in that zone I will argue with you till the sun sets and I will net back down until I win. And honestly, what kind of a relationship is that?

I then brought a proposal to him. I told him that I saw our tendency to constantly be negative in our responses to one another and that I propose an experiment seeing how we would always start our statement to the other person in a positive, agreeable way. Here's the funny thing. As I was proposing this and as I was discussing this with him, we found ourselves repeatedly being negative and contradictory to the other. It was an eye opener for sure. We vowed to work on it and touch base after 2 days. Today is the second day. And I am soooo much happier. I feel more loving towards him. I am more open to submitting to him and I am also more aware of how I respond to him.

I can't believe something so simple can have such a profound effect on a relationship.

What Made You Decide to Homeschool?

This is a question I have been asked quite a lot this past year. You see, I have been very vocal about my choice and it's getting people more curious and that is making me happy. So to answer this question, here's why I'm homeschooling.

1. Andrea went to a progressive preschool and they are taught lessons based on their skill levels. At the age of 4 she has learned everything she needed to learn for preschool and was already touching on Grade 1 lessons. So now, I am torn between sending her back to preschool and having her go through the stuff she has already learned (or learn things she will eventually have to study again when she goes to big school). This would mean I would pay the school to teach her something she already knows. This sounds pretty illogical to me. I looked at my options and I found homeschooling. I have always been curious about it and the more I read about it, the more I fell in love. The beauty is that I get this one year as a sort of trial period. If it doesn't work for us, I send her back to school. If it works for us, then I continue homeschooling her.
2. The lack of character education in kids nowadays. I think my daughter is smart. 98% of parents feel the same. It's our contractual obligation as parents to think our kids are the best! =) However, I know that all of the talents and skills God gave my daughter will be useless if I don't help mold her character. It will be incredibly hard (but not impossible) for me to do this if she is spending 80% of her waking time in school. 
3. My cousin sends her kid to an exclusive school. She spend 120k a year on basic expense (not including around 35k on service, baon, school supplies, etc). the kid spends around 5 hours in school. then goes home to study for 3 hours with my cousin. There's a lot of frustration during these sessions because they are both tired. I spend the same amount of time homeschooling my daughter. So why the hell would I spend more to have someone teach my child only to have to augment the teaching for 3 hours daily. It doesn't make sense.
4. The rains/typhoons don't affect our curriculum =) 
5. We get to go on trips without cancelling classes. 
6. I get to see my daughters weakness/character flaws and actively work on them. 
7. I see my own weakness and character flaws and actively work on them. 

Daily Breakdown

I went to my friend Leira's blog and saw her talk about her day normal day. I thought that was an interesting idea so I figured I'd do it myself. The problem is I have no typical day. I have different kinds of days and that's what I would be talking about here.

Tuesday:
7:30 - Quiet time (read the bible and pray) while drinking a glass of water with apple cider vinegar.
8:00- Make list for the day
8:10 - Prepare Andrea's breakfast, prepare homeschooling materials.
8:30 - FB, YouTube, Etc.
9:00 - Start homeschooling
11:30 - prepare Lunch
12:00 - Lunch with my daughter
12:30 - arts and crafts or fun stuff or reading or videos
1:00 - give daughter a bath and take a bath as well
1:30 - get dressed for MA classes
2:00 - leave for school
2:30 - Library, or Consultation Room either to study or to facilitate IQ tests for kids
6:00 - start of class
9:00 - go home and have dinner.
9:30 - daily review
10:00 - family time
* this assumes I do not have oDesk work.
* this also assumes I have no task to work on for the family business

Saturday:

7:30 - Quiet time (read the bible and pray) while drinking a glass of water with apple cider vinegar.
8:00- Make list for the day
8:10 - Prepare Andrea's breakfast, prepare homeschooling materials.
8:30 - FB, YouTube, Etc.
9:00 - dress Andrea up
10:30 - Leave for gymnastic's class/lunch out
12:00 - 2 - Andrea's gymnastics class
3:00 - take daughter to my MIL and then rest
4:00-7:00 - Bible study
8:00 - go to the resto and help out
10:00 - pick-up daughter

I get crazy when my routine changes. It's hard for my mind to wrap around the changes so quickly and I end up not being as productive as I would like.

This is such an interesting exercise because I seriously thought I was much busier than this! Hahaha

OneDay App

I am always on the lookout for any new and interesting app that might help me and my disorganize self be more organized. I would normally go to itunes, get 5-8 new productivity apps and download every single one of them. Then, I would use one app at a time and see if it works for me. If it works for me, I keep it! If not, I dispose of it and look for another one.

I am sooo excited about my latest app discovery called OneDay App. It combines my need for lists, daily schedule and daily reflection. I AM IN LOVE. Let me show you why.

The starting page looks like this:

At the top left you see the current month and year, followed by the time, and lastly you will see the day and the date.  It is followed by a text reminding you of certain things (you can see what it says right?), and under the text is this huge plus sign which would allow you to add more tasks for that day.  Underneath the plus sign you would see the breakdown of the tasks as those which you still have to do that day, how many important things needs to be done and how many you've done!


If you tap on the All plans Today button, you would see this:

It shows you everything you need to do starting with the tasks you have yet to complete. It's arranged in order of importance. If you would scroll down you would see this:

The tasks I have finished that day. You can see above some things I have worked on/completed today. Here are other things:

Notice that I put in mundane tasks such as writing lists, drinking water...and yes BATHING! You see I'm a mom, these things sometimes suffer if I don't make a conscious effort to do them.

Now, let's go to my favorite part of this app. The daily reflection. At the end of the day, you are prompted to  review your day and reflect on how productive you are and how happy you are with your performance.

Then at the end of it all, you will be given a grade depending on how much of your plans you've accomplished. Isn't that so cool? The nerd in me is tingling at the thought of being graded. Hahaha.

I love so many things about this app but there are some things which I think they could improve on. First, you cannot really pre-plan your lists. They have to be done on a daily basis. So for example, I have a weekly date with Ruy every Friday which I wanted to schedule. I put it in as recurring things every Friday but it still appeared on my To-do list today. It's a small inconvenience but it would be nicer if the to do could have a start date too.